Racial Profiling Essay Example

Racial profiling is undue suspicion of a potential crime applied by law enforcement. Complaints have also been made against educators, retail personnel and others in position of power. Racial profiling is believed to occur under the unjust belief that a person could in some way pose a threat because of race, national origin or religion. Racial profiling is used to fight illegal immigration, drug smuggling, arrests, and a host of other things.

In today's society, especially right here in America, minorities and Muslims face racial profiling and injustices at an alarmingly high rate. African Americans face arrests, murder, and imprisonment by police officers and courts more often than their Caucasian colleagues. Muslims are somehow always identified as terrorists. I've never really understood this logic because most of the terrorists in America are domestic and are not of minority status. Most times, they are also armed and have killed dozens of people but are taken in alive by authorities. A minority in America gets shot for selling cigarettes, playing with toy guns, running from authority, and in Trayvon Martin's case, walking home through a white neighborhood. While some disagree with or do not support the mistreatment of minorities, others can be just as demeaning and heartless as the people that carry out these heinous acts against others. Often, I see posts on social media and some news outlets where people use minute reasonings or the victims past for excessive force or killings of minorities. I truly stand by the principle that you never bring a gun into a situation that a taser can handle. No matter if the assailant is resisting or isn't complying to commands, excessive force and shooting that often results in death should never be the verdict. An unarmed person isn't capable of anything that requires use of a firearm. Police are almost always not convicted and found guilty of the killings of unarmed minorities. Such impacts give likeminded individuals the courage to attempt the same actions; because of this, America is in complete lack of morals, respect, integrity, and any type of empathy for minorities, and in turn, we aren't treat as equals.

According to ("Racial Profiling," 2018) a 2014 (NAACP) National Advancement Association for Colored People. A report found that only three states have laws that permit citizens to file criminal charges against police personnel that use racial profiling in investigations. The same report also established that twenty states had no policy in place in that banned police from using racial profiling in investigations. A stop-and-frisk policy implemented in New York City in 1964, is an example is an example of racial profiling. The policy was at it's highest use between 1994-2013. The policy demonstrated the ultimate use of racial profiling to disproportionately frisk and search minority pedestrians for weapons, drugs, and other illegal items. It wasn't until 2017 that the policy was banned due to its disproportionate target of minorities. By then, it was learned that 90 percent of the over five-million people frisked were innocent of any crime. The same report also generated that African and Hispanic Americans are both three times more likely to be searched in routine traffic stops than white motorists. Hispanic Americans are stopped in belief that they are in America illegally. African Americans are stopped in belief that they may have drugs, weapons or for any other laws believed to have been broken without cause, which are equally wrong. Such actions in policing and the laws of America surrounding race, have coined the phrases "driving while black," and "driving while brown. Even though neither of the things are a real crime, modern day policing has reverted to the Jim Crow era which makes both seem like the unlawful crimes they aren't. Unarmed minorities are often killed, unlawfully arrested, or severely hurt by the actions of those that took oath to serve and protect, but seemingly limits that oath to non-minority Americans.

The murders of unarmed minorities have sparked outrage and riots in recent history. In November 2014, after a jury failed to convict the officer responsible for Michael Brown's murder, businesses were burned, people threw rocks at police cars, and windows were smashed. After Freddy Gray's funeral, rioting and looting occurred which resulted in mandatory curfews for the residents in Baltimore, Maryland. Both these killings are examples of excessive force used by police officers. ("Riots in the US," 2015) states that police kills blacks at three times the rate of white people. One source also reports that young black males are 21 times more likely to be shot dead by police. A study in St. Louis showed that more than 90 percent of people shot by police are black. The United states has more gun violence and higher homicides rates of any other developed country in the world. This may be the reason police are more inclined to use excessive force. While this still doesn't constitute the racial disparities in any form of racial profiling, I do feel that police officers should go through extensive training in different scenarios to better handle certain situations.